AI hardware, challenger brands, longevity, tiktok, conscious leadership
5 things I learned / saw / created in the past few weeks + my thoughts on coaching
As a reminder, this is an informal space for me to curate a few things I saw or created in the past few weeks, usually about marketing, brands, startups, venture, random things I like :)
If you want to follow more of a stream of consciousness follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/karine_hsu
1. AI Hardware - specifically the Rabbit r1 launch
CES happened last week, and rabbit launched. rabbit r1 is a pocket AI assistant that can navigate your apps for you, without you having to pick up your phone. Watch the keynote on Twitter! if you haven’t - their 25 minute keynote video has almost 11M views at this point!
It garnered a ton of attention on Twitter - “why can’t this just be an app?” and Jesse, the founder, did a great job really building on momentum - responding to comments, announcing a partnership with Perplexity a week later, and a bunch of designers on Twitter continuing to remix and brainstorm what could be done with v1 of the product.
I think they did a fantastic job launching the product with great design (#brandmatters) by Teenage Engineering, a nostalgic form factor, and an unbeatable price point ($299). I think they’ve sold at least 50k worth of product now.
I’m genuinely curious to see how Humane, Apple, Samsung (they launched Ballie), Meta, Google end up competing in the hardware game. These new AI hardware devices reminds me of the 2014 IoT / smart watch craze of Jawbone / Fitbit / Apple / Garmin. 10 years later, Apple dominated with Samsung, Google, and upstarts like Oura and Whoop playing in some categories. I personally think people will want to wear/ carry 1, maybe 2 devices on themselves, and the opportunity for real, smart home devices will be huge.
2. Challenger Brands
Challenger brands are the most fun to market A challenger is not a brand that challenges somebody, but a brand that challenges something. Very few explicitly take on another brand in their category, but all of them are challenging something they feel needs to change.
Related to #1, I believe this challenger “vs” framing, while not always perfect, is a helpful way for startups to jumpstart their story
Perplexity ai vs google (current search experience)
arc vs chrome (current browser experience)
rabbit vs iPhone (current app based ecosystem)
https://x.com/karine_hsu/status/1745091111444439171?s=20
3. Longevity will be the new #keto??
It seemingly happened overnight. Bryan Johnson, founder of Braintree and Kernel, is going viral on Twitter, promoting his new Blueprint Protocol. He spent $2m and the last 3 years going to extremes to figure out how to live longer.
4. TikTok / Creating more video content
One of my 2024 goals is to record more video content because I have too many interests that I just want to share into the world…and to my surprise, I’ve been really consistently recording content pretty much daily for the last 20 days on TikTok! In the effort of just getting into a good consistency, I don’t do really any editing or curating of my content into a niche - just think of an idea and one-take post.
It’s been really rewarding to have a such a relatively quick feedback cycle (similar to sports) - I don’t have too many goals around growing my following or anything, purely a fun outlet for myself.
Follow along if you want :) https://www.tiktok.com/@karinehsu
5. Conscious Leadership + Executive Coaching
I recently entered into a new group coaching experiment with 8 other leaders, built on the Conscious Leadership principles. It’s been rewarding to re-learn and learn new techniques to apply to my own life. The current technique I’m applying to my life is the Drama Triangle - https://conscious.is/video/understanding-the-drama-triangle-vs-presence
If you knew me, you’d know that I’m obsessed with executive coaching. I had my first coach a couple years ago and loved it. I want to have my own private practice coaching startup founders at some point, as a “Performance Coach for Business Athletes.”
I’ve thought about how to marry existing methodologies like CLG and Co-Active Coaching, with my background as an athlete. Some thoughts below
Warmup → do you want to get injured
Accountability Sheets
Broader Goal Planning
Drills (for being a founder)
Product, Customers, Emotional, Personal Fulfillment
Reflection. Visualize. Rewatch plays.
Cool Down
Anyways, until next time :)